New Year, New Problems 2: Just To Be Alone
by Jlgjt
Summary: Second story in New Year, New Problems series. Covers Matt. Read the epilogue for a very special video performance by Matt and Gabumon, dedicated to a very special Digimon. Who is it?... read and find out! :


2004: New Year, New Problems

Story #2: Just to Be Alone…

Author's Notes: This story involves Matt Ishida, and is the second in this series. This happens on January 2nd, 2004 (one day after the first story). Name of Matt's bandmate taken from Wikimon (http://wiki. and the story on the naming of Matt's band is based on information found on a Japanese audio CD. Enjoy!

Date: 1/2/2004

Time: About 11:35 pm

Place: Ishida apartment, Matt's room.

Yumato "Matt" Ishida let out a heavy sigh. He was sitting by his desk, his head resting in his left hand while his left elbow rested on the desk, preventing Matt's head from falling onto it. He looked up at the clock. "Closing in on midnight… I wonder if I should just go to bed." Matt asked himself.

Right now, Matt was more than simply tired. His dad was staying late at his job at the TV station… again. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered him much, as his dad had a tendency to… work more than most people would, but today Matt bet he knew why Dad was staying around: "They won't let him go because of all that's been going on, with all the Digimon going around attacking, and MaloMyotismon's blanket of darkness…"

Matt let his thoughts trail off. Frankly, he was more than a bit fed up with all the media attention the Digimon "monsters" were getting, and he was also sick of all the speculation and theories being bantered around by the various news programs and talk shows. He had barely even bothered to watch TV over the past few days he was so sick of what was going on.

Matt was already in a pretty bad mood when rampaging Digimon had crashed the big Christmas concert his band, The Teenage Wolves, had been giving, and the revelation of Myotismon still existing and being behind everything that had been going on only made him even more upset. After getting back from the battle, Matt just spent most of the time in his room, sulking and stewing in his emotions. Four and a half years ago, Matt had seen firsthand how ruthless and cruel Myotismon had been, and now, today… his band was instrumentally crippled and angry at him, he was spending part of his time thinking of how long he could hide Gabumon from his dad and his bandmates, part of the time wondering if it was worth the bother, and part of time mentally blowing off at Myotismon for bringing so much cruelty to him and the other kids, particularly Ken.

Yep, Matt Ishida was turning into a Grade-A basket case, and he knew it. "Come on Ishida, pull yourself together." Matt was telling himself. "You don't want to let your emotions run away with you on this!" He had to mentally berate himself in this fashion because he remembered that all the times he had let his emotions run wild while he was in the first adventure involving Digimon, he had only caused trouble and ultimately ended up humiliating himself as well. It was well known that he had had a tendency to run off at the mouth and be confrontational at times, and though he had gotten better at curbing his impulses once the root problem had been addressed, it was at times like these that Matt wished things could go back to the way they were before meeting Gabumon: alone, cold, to himself, crooning away at his harmonica, feeling bad for himself because of the divorce…

Then Matt looked over at Gabumon, leaning against a wall in an attempt to catch a few winks of sleep, and realized that it could never be that way again. Of course he didn't think meeting Gabumon was a bad thing; the divorce of his parents had done a number on his spirit, and with emotions running high Gabumon had been there to help him break through the fog of self-pity and truly heal from that experience, but still…

Matt looked over and smiled at his Digimon partner. Gabumon was certainly a bit of an oddball, maybe because he thought himself to be a wolf when he didn't really look like one, or maybe because of his personality: charming yet funny-looking, sweet yet aggressive, not to mention a large dose of naiveté… Even after being all this time with him, Matt still wasn't sure why Gabumon seemed so odd, yet so much the perfect partner he was. However Matt figured it, one thing stuck out about Gabumon: his loyalty to Matt. Gabumon had been loyal in thick and thin, even one could say to a fault. And Matt knew why it was to a fault.

The episode was so humiliating that he didn't like to remember it, but the memory served as a good check on his emotions, reminding Matt on how easy it was to let your emotions get the better of you and start to wreck everything. During the first adventure, while he and the other kids were fighting the Dark Masters, Matt had let a Digimon play on his emotions and hurt in order to convince him that by defeating Tai he would "grow" like the other kids had over the course of the adventure. He later described the result as a "royal mess"; MetalGarurumon, showing friendship in the most twisted of ways by going along with Matt in attacking Tai through fighting WarGreymon, all the confusion and heartache it caused the rest of the group, the fact that he had to disappear for a while due to the shame and agony. It tore into him, eventually causing Matt to come face-to-face with his own feelings, the hard, cold "shell" he had built up over himself due to the hurt from the divorce and once sustained by the then-defeated concept that he had to look out for T.K., be there for him…

In the end, then, the problem had been with him, not the others. For too long, he had been cherishing a delusion: that he had to stand on his own two feet, that he had to be strong enough so that he could feel in charge of his life, ordering other people around and protecting his little brother, that **he** had to be the one in charge of the group because he couldn't be in charge of anything else in his life, wanting to do things without help from other people, even those who wanted to be friends with him. After facing those feelings, Matt finally realized that he needed friends, and he needed to be one as well, but at the cost of nearly wrecking his image in the process. And that's why, in the beginning of a new year, he despaired of ever being able to be alone with himself again. He had learned too well that it was not wrong to have someone to share your feelings with, and also that he needed to be involved; shutting yourself out was the wrong thing to do.

"I'm in this too deep." Matt admitted. He considered himself on the fringe of importance inside the group, but that didn't change his conclusion much. Before, he had once considered himself as "number two", but that had radically changed over the years. As things stood now, Tai, and to some extent Davis, were the real leaders of the group, Izzy and Ken were of importance because of their high intelligence, and T.K. and Kari had surpassed him in importance as well because of their major participation in both sets of adventures and familiarity with Armor and DNA Digivolving. Matt, at best, now had a marginal contribution to the leadership of the group…

Matt sighed, wondering if he should just go to bed and stop waiting up for his dad. After he thought again, he decided that it was too important to talk to his dad again in order to miss him. He had things he wanted to talk to him about, and considering how busy the TV station was he didn't know when the next time he would see his dad again. Meanwhile, all Matt could do was sit by his desk and wait, hoping he wouldn't doze off.

Matt impatiently strummed his fingers on the desk, mentally pleading his dad to hurry up and get home. He had been gone since very early in the morning, and had been at work most of yesterday as well. Considering that the station was now as buzzing like a swarm of bees, Matt's chances of seeing his dad again sometime before he just dozed off were not good. "Drat this press coverage!" Matt thought to himself, realizing that it was likely he and the other Digidestined would be caught up in it sooner or later, and he wanted to know how good his dad could cover for them (one of the things Matt wanted to talk about with him).

Suddenly the main topic of discussion popped into his head again: the fact that Myotismon had reappeared and had been controlling Oikawa, creating all the evil that had been seen and defeated by the newer group of kids. Matt's blood started to boil at the memories from four and a half years ago, seeing Myotismon essentially destroy two of his own servants for not sticking to their duties. The absolute ruthlessness had made him mad, but he thought the context around the incident was at least as important, if not more so: the search for "the Eighth Child". His thoughts then instantly jumped to him trying to protect Kari from Myotismon's grasp, and failing, miserably. Thinking he had let everyone down by not being able to stop Kari from surrendering herself had made him very upset and also somewhat sick to his stomach, knowing that he couldn't stop the doom of both worlds…

But what happened next, when they had all gathered together to save her… Kari now called it "the miracle at the TV station", and a miracle it was indeed, seeing the sacrifice of Wizardmon and the one-time enemy turn into a powerful angel… absolutely mind-boggling what had happened…

Gatomon. That single word popped into Matt's mind. Normally, he wouldn't have given Gatomon much thought or consideration: Matt was not a cat person, she was Kari's Digimon and Kari was Tai's sister, not his. But the recent revelation had pushed Gatomon repeatedly into his thoughts. Matt had long since realized that compared to what she had been through, not even all the combined agony resulting from the divorce could ever hold a candle to it. Furthermore, seeing Myotismon again had certainly ripped open the old wounds, and he was afraid that over at least the next few days things were going to be tough for Kari, Tai and probably T.K. as well; indeed, Matt himself may get involved because of the strong relationship between T.K. and Kari.

How did Matt fell about Gatomon? Well, for one thing, he felt sorry for what had happened to her; just about everyone did. But he also had a quiet admiration for her charisma, charm, even her lovable smile, which amazed him considering how she had been so good at being bad that she had once denied them use of an important gate to the human world virtually single-handedly! But to Matt, Gatomon was more than just a Digimon cat who could be so likable despite what she had been once; she also represented a missed opportunity in his quest to find the answer to his questions.

Why was it a missed opportunity? Gatomon had said she too had been a cold stone loner, really trusting no one except for who held the whip that could hurt her (Myotismon). But after all Wizardmon did for her, right up to the point he gave his life, the coldness had been destroyed and replaced with a wonderful, refreshing joy and light, which everyone, including Matt, had been able to really enjoy when she was around them. But he had not fully appreciated that truth when he could have benefited from it the most; Matt had been amazed, like everyone else was, by the deepness of Wizardmon's love for Gatomon, but because he was still cherishing his delusion of needing to stand on his own Matt had missed the deeper lesson Wizardmon's sacrifice had for him: that it showed the ideal standard for how a true friend should act.

Some of the major questions that had been plaguing Matt when he fell for the deception were "Why should I be a friend to others?" and "Can I truly be a friend if I really wanted to be one?" With 20/20 hindsight, Matt realized that Gatomon all along had the answers he was looking for, or at the very least some good insight into the problem, but because Matt had missed the deeper lesson he wasn't looking in Gatomon's direction for advice, and even if he had he may not have wanted to asked her, as the concept of having a heart-to-heart with the Digimon partner of another person, even secretly, wouldn't have appealed to him, probably because it would have been too embarrassing to him. But after Matt had taken a much bumpier road, he had lost face anyway, so now… "Asking Gatomon could've helped, even if I would've felt embarrassed about it." Matt had reluctantly concluded. "I lost face anyway, so going to ask her probably would have solved the problem without creating so much of a mess, or at least made it easier to solve…" **That **was the missed opportunity: Matt not asking Gatomon on how he could be a better friend, drawing answers from what he had seen of Wizardmon and Gatomon.

As if recognizing the potential he had in gaining something from her wasn't enough, Matt was amazed by the amount of endurance and inner strength Gatomon had: for a very long time, she had looked all over the Digiworld for Kari; for a long time, she had resisted Myotismon's whip and dark pull until it simply just wore her down; for a long time, she continued to fight even though she was much weaker due to the missing tail-ring. The sum total of those incidents lead Matt to the conclusion that Gatomon had an amazing amount of willpower, which was only somewhat surprising considering her powers were largely psychic and required such large amounts of willpower; nevertheless, even without having an appreciation for the feline form, Gatomon was still considered nothing short of amazing in Matt's opinion. And, just for a moment, Matt was glad he had met her…

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Matt's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the ringing phone. He jumped, startled by the sudden ringing and wondering who would be calling him at this time of night. He rushed out of the room and answered the phone.

"Ishida residence. Yumato speaking." he breathlessly spoke into the phone.

"Yumato? You still up too?" came the somewhat surprised reply from the other end.

Matt instantly recognized the voice. "Akira, what are you doing calling me at home? Shouldn't you be in bed?" he replied. Akira was one of the members of Matt's band.

"Well, I would be, but I can't sleep. My mind's been on something…"

"What is it?" Matt asked, suddenly concerned and a little worried as well.

"I'm not exactly sure, but…"

At that instant Matt felt a tug on his pants. He turned down to see Gabumon pulling on his right pant leg. Apparently the phone had awakened him from his slumber. "Something wrong, Matt?" he quickly asked.

Slightly annoyed, Matt pulled the phone away from his ear and covered the mouthpiece. "I don't think so." he said to Gabumon. "Now get back to your spot; Dad could walk in that door any minute now, and I don't want him seeing you yet! Don't bug me when I'm on the phone!" Gabumon, still sleepy and not wanting to argue with Matt, wearily walked back into his room, wondering if all the fuss would amount to anything when all was said and done…

Matt put the phone back up to his ear. "Hello, you still there?" he heard through the earpiece.

"Yeah, I'm here." Matt said into the phone as a reply.

"Why'd you cover the mouthpiece like that?"

"Like what?" Matt flushed a pale shade of pink.

"Like you did just a second ago. You **are** alone in the house, right? Right?"

"Ummm…" Matt flushed even more deeply, but it was all but invisible in the general darkness of the room. He was afraid Akita had been tipped off…

"Something very funny things have been going on over the past week or so now, and they seemed to be involving you somehow, or at least that what the others say…"

Matt instantly broke out in a nervous sweat. "What? What do you mean 'involved somehow'?" he replied, trying to sound incredulous.

"I don't know, but after those crazy monsters attacked the concert we were running for our lives, at least me and the other two were. Someone noticed that you weren't with us and decided to go back to look for you. They say they noticed that you were in the middle of a monster battle and that you seemed to be ordering some of the monsters around. Some other kids were doing the same thing according to what he said. Can you give us another explanation for why you didn't high-tail it out of the area with the rest of us?"

This was a nerve-racker for Matt; had one of his bandmates noticed him ordering Garurumon and the other Digimon around?? Thankfully, Matt had a ready made excuse to reply with: "I was… trying to get my guitar."

"Oh, sure, worry about your guitar while your bandmates run around like chickens with the heads cut off!" was the sarcastic reply.

Matt wasn't about to put up with sarcasm, so he tried to be blunt: "Akira, be lucky we got out of that with our lives! Those… monsters were very dangerous, and could've easily stomped you into the ground or ripped you apart!"

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure. But I'm still upset about the equipment…"

Matt thought Akira was being sarcastic again. "We have the guitars, OK? Sure it set us back, but once we get some new equipment we'll be back on tour and good as new!"

"Maybe…" Akira replied, his voice not showing much hope for the situation.

"Akira, you're just going to have to trust me on this, all right?"

Akira sighed over the phone. "Fine."

Matt was now ready to switch gears. "Akira, it's approaching midnight, and we should both be in bed. What on earth has got you so worked up that you have to call me now??"

"Well, I wanted to ask you a question, because I want to know something related to those monsters. You see, everyone else, including myself, felt a vague, somewhat canine presence backstage, and a large white wolf-like creature with blue stripes was reported at the battle site according to the news."

Matt was really nervous now; he could feel his hands sweating onto the phone. "Uh-huh, and your point is?" he asked, trying not to sound nervous over the phone.

"Well, what I want to know is why you choose the name 'The Teenage Wolves'…"

"Come on, Akira, you guys know the story! I borrowed it from that movie title, 'I Was a Teenage Werewolf"; don't you remember me telling you that?!?"

"Yeah, sure I remember that. But my question is why did you choose wolves over, say, tigers? What makes the wolf thing special to you?"

Matt was now at a state of near-panic; he had expected the retelling of the naming of the band to end the conversation, but apparently some of his bandmates were out to prove something, and Akira was probably wondering whether to believe them or not. "Hoo-boy, how many conversations about the Digimon 'monsters' could they have had already?" Matt thought. He replied with "Well, the tiger thing is kinda cliché, and wolves are not used that often…"

"You didn't answer my question Yumato; why a wolf over something else?" Akira replied, cutting Matt off.

"Well, they are my favorite creature, and uh…"

"Why?"

"Say again?" Matt was afraid he would have to confess about Gabumon sometime during the phone conversation.

"Why are they your favorite creature?"

Matt thought for a moment, but couldn't really come up with a good reply. Akira said again through the phone "Your silence speaks volumes, Yumato. I'm being to think that they aren't crazy when they say you are hiding something from us."

"But I'm not! Honest!" Matt pleaded as a last ditch defense.

"Whatever, Yumato. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call the rest of the band and relay the conversation we just had to them. Don't be surprised if sometime in the next few days one of us knocks on your door demanding to see your big secret. And that's all I'm going to say about it. See you sometime soon."

"Akira, don't do this…!"

"Who's going to stop me, Yumato? You're hiding something, the conversation proves it! End of story! See you later, Ishida!"

And with that, Akira hung up on his end, leaving Matt with an unpleasant sensation in his stomach as the dial tone rung out into his ear. "Well that's just great! How am I supposed to hide Gabumon from my bandmates now?" Matt thought. For a moment again, he wished he was a "lone wolf", that this would be someone else's concern, not his.

Expecting some kind of magical spell to sweep over him, he put the phone back in the receiver. When nothing happened, he felt dejected and defeated. He finally decided to go to bed, and started for his bedroom door…

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Matt was reaching out to turn the door handle when he heard another door open. Startled, he rushed back down the hallway to see what it was…

"Dad!" he exclaimed as he noticed his dead-tired father stumble through the front door. He rushed over to take the coat and briefcase from his father's hand.

"Matt, what are you still doing up?" his father wearily asked.

"I was waiting for you. Do you want something to eat?"

"No, no, I'm fine. Just tired. Let me sit down on the couch."

"Are you sure? What about some tea?"

"No thank you, son. Just… get to bed." Matt's dad said as he slumped down on the couch, head in hands.

"Must have been quite the day, I figure. No wonder you're so tired." Matt said, trying to make conversation.

"Oh… you have no idea! I was on my toes most of the day, trying to juggle several things at once. The station is at the busiest I've seen it in a long time. They only let me go because they didn't want me to be sleep-deprived."

"Hmm… what speculation have you heard?"

"About the monsters?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I've heard a fair number of rumors and speculation, but nothing solid. I don't know what to believe about the monsters anymore; I don't even know if I can believe what you told me about the monsters."

"Come on Dad, you know I'm right. Don't you remember what happened four and a half years ago, with the fog and the monsters?"

Matt's father sighed. "All I remember is some monster destroying all the buildings in the area. I'd thought we'd all lose our jobs after all that craziness…"

"So you don't remember anything else?"

"Well now that you mentioned it, I do remember that fog, and also a crazy world in the sky… I didn't know what it all meant at the time, and I don't think I do even now."

"Anyone suggested a link between that incident and this one?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty popular theory, but it could just be coincidence… I would need more than just speculation before I believed that theory."

"Well, didn't what you saw and what I told you about count for something?"

Matt's dad sighed again. "I don't know… I'd like to think I was hallucinating some of the stuff I saw and heard, but it seemed too real to be an illusion… frankly, I'm not sure of anything that's going on anymore. It's all too crazy…!"

Matt smiled uneasily. "Look, I know what you've seen and what I've told you does sound crazy, I'll admit that, but you have to believe me when I say I'm telling the truth! Don't you remember anything else from four and a half years ago?"

"No, I wish I could say I did… maybe something will come to me after I've had some sleep, so if you don't mind…"

Matt looked on in some frustration as his Dad wearily rose from the couch and headed for the bedroom. To Matt, it seemed his dad wasn't getting what he was trying to tell him about Digimon and the Digiworld, and his memory about what had happened before was not as good as Matt had hoped for. Apparently the only way Matt was going to convince his dad was to show something that would refresh his memory. "Oh, what do I do now?" Matt thought, his mind racing.

Matt quickly but reluctantly came to the conclusion that the only way to get through to his dad was to re-introduce Gabumon to him. He didn't want to do it, and if it wasn't so important that his dad believed in Digimon Matt would've left it for the morning. "Um… Dad?" Matt tentatively asked in the direction of Dad's bedroom.

"Hmm… what is it, sport?" was the tired reply as Matt's dad turned his attention back to him.

Matt looked down at his shoes, some shame in his eyes. "Well, I, uh… I, um… have something to show you."

"Oh? Really?" The expression on Dad's face changed from one of only vague interest to one of sudden fascination.

Matt brightened a bit. "Yeah, it's in my room." Matt walked back in the direction of his room and Dad, still in his rumpled work clothes, followed him, suddenly immensely curious as to what was going on…

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Matt opened the door to his room and hastily entered it, heading toward Gabumon's hiding spot. For two days, this spot and others like it had done the job very well, supplementing the handy coat and scarf arrangement which had allowed Gabumon to get home from the battle relatively unnoticed, but now circumstances dictated that these kinds of things were no longer needed. In other words, Matt was getting ready, albeit very reluctantly, to reintroduce Gabumon to his dad in hopes of jogging his memory, crucial to getting him to believe what Matt was saying.

Matt's dad stumbled into the room, very curious and also confused as to what was going on. "Now, son, what's this all about? What do you want to show me?" he asked.

"Just a sec." Matt said from a corner, stalling for a bit of time. Meanwhile, he had stooped down next to Gabumon, heart heavy knowing that it was the only way to get his dad to believe him…

"What is it Matt?" Gabumon quietly asked his human partner. "What do you want me to do?"

Matt sighed. "My dad doesn't believe what I told him about Digimon and the Digiworld, so I'm going to introduce you to my dad again so that maybe he'll believe me." he explained.

"Son, what's going on? Why are you in the corner talking to… something?" Dad asked Matt, trying to figure out what his son was doing.

Matt sighed. Now was the time. Hesitantly he began: "Dad, I know you don't really believe what I told you over the past few days, so I've decided that you need to meet someone, a friend of mine. I don't know if you remember, but you actually met him before, four and a half years ago, during the fog and monster attacks, and I thought that if you met him again it would jog your memory and give you proof for what I've been telling you." Matt took a deep breath, then continued: "So Dad, I'd like to reintroduce you to my Digimon partner, Gabumon."

Dad watched in amazed bemusement as Matt motioned for something to emerge from the corner and then watched Gabumon slowly walk toward him. Instantly he was struck with a profound sense of déjà vu, and started rattling his brain for a reason why.

Meanwhile Gabumon had walked over to where Matt's dad was standing and offered him one of his hands to shake. "I'm Gabumon. Don't you remember meeting me before?" the Digimon said, smiling a bit.

Matt's dad still racked his brains; he carefully looked over Gabumon. The form did look familiar… then it hit him. He remember there were two big battles by the TV station, one with Matt and a bunch of other "monsters" fighting with something like a vampire and his creepy servants over a child and another "monster", then a second one where it was a "returned monster" Matt and the others fought, then seeing the world in the sky and also Matt and the others go into that other world… a series of words suddenly flashed into the mind of Matt's dad, and he quietly rattled them off as they appeared: "Disruption… fog… convergence… sacrifice… miracle emergence… angel's arrow… prophecy… hour of the beast… total destruction… other world… destined kids… Matt and T.K., in the sky…" Everything now started to fall into place in his mind, and from that moment on Matt's dad was convinced that Matt was right about Digimon and a digital world.

"Hello? Can I get a response, something?" Gabumon asked in the direction of Matt's dad.

"Huh? Oh, sorry!" Dad replied, chuckling a bit; Gabumon's question had snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked down at Gabumon and smiled. "Yes, I do think I've met you before, and it's very nice meeting you again." he said, shaking Gabumon's outstretched hand.

Dad now turned to Matt; he laid a hand heavily on his son's shoulder and admitted, "Yeah, you were right. Seeing Gabumon again brought back up some memories of what had happened those years ago, and… it convinced me. Thanks for showing him to me! Now things actually are starting to make sense in my mind."

Matt blushed. "You're very welcome." he replied.

Dad chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "Now that's enough introductions for one night! I think its best we all get to bed, so that we will have at least a decent amount of sleep for tomorrow."

Matt chuckled a bit, as he couldn't agree more; after all, tomorrow was always another day. "All right Dad. You go to bed, and Gabumon and I will sleep together in my bed."

"Sounds fair enough to me. Now get moving!" Dad ordered as he left for his bedroom and bed.

Matt chuckled again and shook his head. Bossy dads… oh well, what could you do about it? Dragging his feet in tiredness as he walked over to the bed, he asked Gabumon to look away as he changed into his pajamas, an order Gabumon was more than willing to accept considering his own concerns over modesty.

Matt shook his head again, grinning. "Oh, boy, what did I ever get myself into?" he said to himself, slipping on his pajama tops as he did so…

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Approximately midnight, Ishida apartment, Matt's room.

Matt lay in his bed, trying to figure out why, with how tired he was, he wasn't already asleep. Gabumon lay next to him in the bed, providing warmth… maybe a little too much of it.

Was Matt too hot under the covers? No, he was a little hot, but Gabumon was sleeping peacefully and he didn't think it was worth bothering him to push off the covers or shift around to take off his shirt. Frankly, Matt didn't want to guess how much of a wolf Gabumon could be like if he woke him up now, nor was he willing to find out how Gabumon **would** react, so Matt decided to look for another reason.

Was it the dread of having his bandmates show up and make a scene in the apartment looking for Gabumon? Well… not really, no. Matt figured that if he could keep his cool, it wouldn't be much harder than introduce Gabumon to his bandmates than to his Dad. True, he would have to set some rules in order to prevent them from pressuring him to take Gabumon on stage, but it wasn't that big of a deal either, as long as he was stern enough to leave an impression on his bandmates' minds.

Then, what was it that was keeping Matt up right now? Deciding to clear his mind, Matt suddenly had one word come into it: "Gatomon". He had a battle with himself, trying to figure out why Gatomon kept cropping up in his mind. Yes, he kinda felt sorry for what had happened to hear, and yes, he did want to do something to make her feel a little better, but why was it insistently pushing into his mind? "There is something you **can** do for her." Matt's conscience told him.

"But **what** can I do?" Matt asked himself. Then it dawned on him; wasn't there a song or something he had done with Gatomon, during the first adventures? "Yeah, a song…!" Matt remembered. "Yeah, that's right… in a lagoon… something with fish, maybe…? Oh, now I remember… it was about flying fish, I think… yeah, that sounds right…" And instantly Matt knew what he could do. It would require practice, yes, and Gabumon's help, but it was doable, and he could add his own touch to the song as well…

Not now though; it was too late at night to try now. He would wait until morning to tell Gabumon what he had in mind. Now if he could only recall the tune…

Tunes and lyrics danced in Matt's head as he now quickly fell asleep. He dreamed of seeing Gatomon's neat little smile and Kari and Tai's grateful reactions as a result of what Matt was going to do… tomorrow, that is…

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Epilogue: 1/3/04, around 5:00 pm, Kamiya apartment, Tai's room

Tai Kamiya sat in his room, surfing the Internet on his computer. Right now, he was going over online news feeds, looking for anything related to the recent Digimon attacks. Like on the TV news and talk shows, the Internet news sites and chat rooms were rife with speculation, and Tai wanted to be sure to stay on top of it. There was an unwritten agreement between the Digidestined kids that if the media wasn't monitored, there would be no way they would know how the public would react to Digimon, or anyway of knowing how to properly explain what Digimon were. Because both of these problems represented major potential pitfalls in the popularization and acceptance of Digimon, it was important to stay up to date on speculation, and that was exactly what Tai was doing: staying up to date on the latest rumors and gossip.

The computer suddenly beeped a sound which Tai recognized as "a new message has arrived" sound. "Huh, a new message. Wonder who sent it?" Tai said to himself. He switched from his web browser to his email program and clicked the button that downloaded the new messages directly to his computer. After a while of waiting, Tai saw the new message was from Matt. He opened it up, read it for a bit, then furrowed his brow. "Hmmm…"

"Hey Agumon…" Tai asked.

"What is it, Tai?" Agumon replied. He had been lounging on Tai's bed when the computer's beep had attracted his attention. Now he started over toward the computer.

"Could you go get Kari and Gatomon for me?"

"Why do I need to do that?"

"I just got an email from Matt with some kind of video attached to it. He says he wants Kari and Gatomon to see it."

Agumon looked confused. "Why didn't Matt send it directly to Kari's D-Terminal then?" he asked.

"Beats me. I guess it would be too big for the D-Terminal's hard drive. Do you know where they are, Agumon?"

"Sure I do. Be back in a second." Agumon rushed over for the bedroom door, grabbed and pulled down a strap which allowed him to open the door with a push (easier than trying to reach for the handle and possibly end up stumbling into the hallway) and went out into the main part of the Kamiya apartment.

Agumon quickly found Kari and Gatomon in the main room, sitting on a couch watching a TV show. He went over and gently tapped Kari's leg with one of his claws. After a moment, Kari turned to look in the direction the tapping had come from. She looked down to see Agumon looking up at her, with a small smile on his face.

"Yes, what do you want Agumon?" Kari said, slightly annoyed that she had been interrupted. Gatomon, who was sitting in Kari's lap, now turned her attention in Agumon's direction as well.

"Tai wants both you and Gatomon to come into his room. He says Matt sent him an email and he wants you two to see the video with it."

"Why us two?"

"I don't know, Tai didn't say anything."

"Hmm…" Kari looked down at Gatomon, who was apparently as clueless as she was. "Oh well, guess I'd better go see what this is about…" Kari thought to herself. She slowly got up from the couch, gently grabbing on to Gatomon as she did so, and followed Agumon back into Tai's room.

Kari entered Tai's room. "What is it Tai? What does Matt want?" she asked Tai, who had just turned in her direction.

"I don'tknow." Tai replied, turning his attention back to the screen. "All the email says is that you and Gatomon should see the attached video."

"Then let's see it… though I wonder why Matt would make a video for only Gatomon and me…"

Tai just shrugged his shoulders. Kari leaned in beside her brother while Gatomon, smooth as silk, shifted into a position on Kari's back, clinging onto her right shoulder. Tai clicked on the video icon to download the attachment to the computer's desktop. After a few moments, another video icon appeared on the desktop. Tai double-clicked on that icon, and after another moment a program loaded and the email video started playing…

All eyes watched as an image of Matt, holding his guitar as if ready to play it, appeared on the screen. Matt waved to the watchers a bit and everyone in the room heard Matt's voice being produced by the computer's speakers. He said, "Hey Tai, Kari… Gatomon. I know the last few days must have been pretty rough for all of you, particularly Gatomon, after all that happened…"

In the video, Matt's face fell to a grim, acknowledging stare. He continued: "Gatomon, I can imagine how rough that last battle was, seeing Myotismon again… it must've ripped open all the old wounds, right?" Gatomon quietly nodded at the screen, indicating that Matt had hit the nail on the head in terms of what was happening.

Matt's face, however, quickly turned into a little, twinkling grin. A small chuckle was seen and heard on the video. "Actually, it may come as a surprise to you, Gatomon, but I've actually thought about you several times over the past few days, and I wondered about what I could do to make you feel just a little bit better. I finally remembered something that I thought might actually bring back some good memories, and I decided to email it to you on a video."

Matt's grin broadened. He asked Gatomon, "Do you remember doing a song to my harmonica during the first adventures? Well, I decided to update it a bit, but I also wanted to do something that would bring back some memories to both you and the others as well."

Matt paused for a moment, then said very earnestly, "Gatomon, these two songs are my gift to you and Kari and the other members of your family." He turned to face his left (the screen's right) and said "Take it away, Gabumon!" in that direction. Matt reached out, and rotated the camera so that the picture panned to the right, stopping on Gabumon, who smiled at the watchers before putting Matt's old harmonica up to his lips and beginning to play it.

Being a Digimon with a snout, and not having much time to practice, Gabumon played hesitatingly, but the music heard through the speakers was instantly familiar to the listeners: Matt's old theme, the music he had played whenever he felt like he wanted to be by himself, was piped through the computer speakers, immediately bringing a tear to the eyes of everyone as the honest attempt at a wonderful old tune brought back comforting memories of nights of peace and security, where fighting stopped and for a while all seemed at peace…

After a minute's playing, Gabumon stopped, removed the harmonica from in front of his mouth, bowed a bit and grinned his ever-likable grin before Matt's arm reached across the screen, pulling the camera back in his direction.

In the video, Matt beamed a smile. "And now, my redone version of 'I'm A Digi-Kitty'. You remember that song, Gatomon?"

Gatomon smiled, enthused by Gabumon's playing. "I sure do!" she said to the computer screen, as if she was responding to Matt's question.

In the video, Matt positioned his hands and fingers to play the guitar, and within seconds Matt had started playing a tune, upbeat and slightly bouncy as well. Matt grinned a mile wide as he started on the vocals, which went like this, with an upbeat pattern of strumming between each line:

"Cats land on their feet… But they still need to eat… It's Gatomon's wish, for some fresh flying fish… 'Cause she's a kitty, a Digi-kitty, 'cause she's a Digi-kitty oh yeah!"

On the video, there was strumming for a few moments, then Matt spoke again, explaining the next part: "Now, what I'll sing next are verses I added, because as you know, Gatomon, you only had one verse when you sang it. I hope you like the new verses." Matt turned his attention back to his guitar and strummed a bit more before beginning the second verse:

"Gatomon's tough… But she's already seen more than enough… Battered and scarred… Yet she's come very far… 'Cause she's a kitty, a Digi-kitty, 'cause she's a Digi-kitty oh yeah!"

A few moments of strumming, then Matt began the third verse:

"The cat once abhorred… Is now simply adored… Because of a friend… Who stayed until the end… Yeah, she's a kitty, a Digi-kitty, a Digi-kitty oh yeah!"

More strumming, then the fourth verse:

"The friend's life revealed… What before had been heeled… An angel, not a demon… Was what had been concealed… But she's still a kitty, a Digi-kitty, a Digi-kitty oh yeah!"

More strumming, then a fifth verse, seeming to be a concluding verse from what the listeners heard:

"With Justice's wrath… She led the attack… And struck down her great evil… Even though he came back… And she's the kitty, the Digi-kitty, the Digi-kitty ohhhhhh, yeah!"

When the final "yeah" was said, Matt did a final strum with a flourish and an eyebrow raise, then, beaming from his happiness and also a bit sweaty from the hard playing he had done, took his guitar off and placed it on the nearby stand. He turned back to face the camera (and watchers) and said, "So, Gatomon, that's it, that's my improvement to your song you sang in that lagoon those 4 or so years ago. I really hope you like it. Send me an email back telling me what you think, and, uh, save the video in case you want to hear the song again, because I don't think this is going to be performed with my band at a concert anytime soon, if at all. Gabumon sends his sympathies and I hope that you and Kari and Tai and Agumon, if he's been watching this as well, have had a little better day because of my songs. Hoping to see you sometime soon, this is Yumato Ishida of The Teenage Wolves and his partner Gabumon signing off!"

On the video, Matt reached over toward something on the left side of the screen, and then the video stopped, the program automatically returning it to the beginning.

After a moment of staring at the screen, Tai, Kari and Agumon quickly turned their eyes toward Gatomon, now being held in Kari's arms, to await her judgment of Matt's efforts…

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Ishida apartment, Matt's room, about 5:20 pm.

Matt's D-Terminal beeped, indicating a new message. He had been expecting a response to the email and the video, but not quite as soon as this. "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" he thought. Matt, currently sitting on his bed, reached down and unclipped his D-Terminal from his belt. He opened the lid covering the screen and saw the new message appear on the screen; like he thought, the message was from Kari. He opened the message, and read the following:

Matt-

I wanted to send you this thank you for taking the time to show you care. Gatomon thought what you did was absolutely wonderful, and seeing Gabumon play that old tune of yours was both unusual and wonderful at the same time. Yes, we are keeping that video on the computer, and we appreciate your effort. It has been a rough few days for us, because we had to reveal both of our Digimon to our parents, and Gatomon had to tell her story to them as well. Yeah, that was rough on her…

Tai and Agumon send you their thanks, and Tai requests that you meet with Izzy and him at his apartment, because there is something kinda important that he wants to talk with both of you about. He'll tell you at the meeting.

Anyway, thanks for caring Matt. Now isn't being a friend much better than sitting by yourself on the beach with your harmonica:-)

Sincerely yours, Kari Kamiya

Matt closed the message, then the D-Terminal's lid. He wondered what Tai wanted to talk about with him, but for now the concern seemed small. He smiled, acknowledging Kari's honest teasing. Of course being a friend was much better for your spirit than to simply sit around and mope with your harmonica all the time!

Yes, there was the prospect of having to introduce Gabumon to his bandmates and also the puzzle of what Tai wanted to talk about, but for the moment Matt Ishida was happy, completely pleased with himself that he had succeeded in cheering Gatomon up. "After all," Matt thought, "with all the people I could be friends to, why would I ever want to be alone?" He smiled as he reattached the D-Terminal to his belt and walked out of his room to prepare supper for himself and Gabumon…

**The End**


End file.
